At around $55.00 the Microsoft HD-5000 will do 1280 * 720 at 30FPS and gives superb results. It is far, far better than my Logitech 9000 which is used for rear view drive recording.

I havenít tried the model you mentioned but a few things to consider if you are aiming for a small file size from on the fly compression, especially at that resolution. It can take some processing power and disk bandwidth to achieve a film smooth result. MiniCam is fabulous for one click recording and the best recording codec I have used so far is DivX 6.9.2.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think GM was going to bring back the El Camino using the VE utes? But then as you said, along came the GFC.

yes.

first, they talked about bringing it to the US as a pontiac, and had a "open" name-- as a car show concept(i believe it was '07-08?), they toyed with the name SS-T, and it was everything that the commodore ss-v was, just left-hand drive.. after that, they killed pontiac, in the process killing the concept as well. then they did mess with using the same model, just rebadged as a chevy, and talk was thrown around about using the el camino name , though, there was some skepticism about gm's revival of dead names(btw, they already make a chevy version of the commodore for south africa--still rhd though). then with the GFC, and the EPA cracking down on manufacturer fleet mileage, i have little faith left that the ute will ever come to the US market. and if it does come to the US, i imagine it might be in a i-4, i-5 or v-6 format, but not the ss-v, for gas mileage compliance...